The XC40 will come equipped with a raft of safety features inlcuding pedestrian and road warning systems(5/6)

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Remember the Volvo 40.1 concept? The Chinese-owned Swedish company revealed the crossover study alongside the 40.2 saloon-SUV thing last year, and one of them has just made it to production pretty much unchanged. Hint, it isn’t the saloon-SUV thing.

The new Volvo XC40 will kick off the carmaker’s crossover line-up making it three-strong now with the XC60 and XC90 included. Like its bigger siblings the XC40 rides on Volvo’s modular platform which is the vehicle architecture of all Volvo models now and going into the future, adaptive to electrified powertrains and all-wheel drive systems.

The middle-of-the-range XC60 is already on sale in the region from Dh200K, and you can read our verdict on page 28, but the XC40 will try to fight off compact premium rivals such as the BMW X1, Audi Q3, Mercedes-Benz GLA, and even the upcoming Jaguar E-Pace.

When it goes on sale early next year first in overseas markets, the XC40 will start from around Dh150,000, offering consumers a choice of front-wheel drive and all-wheel drive as well as numerous iterations of Volvo’s 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbocharged engine mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission. You’ll be able to pick from the 156bhp T3, 190bhp T4, and the headlining XC40 T5 model worth 247bhp.

As usual, Volvo will offer the 2018 XC40 in R-Design and Inscription trims, the former being sporty and the latter more elegant. It goes without saying that the crossover will be loaded with safety kit like lane mitigation, all kinds of pedestrian and road warning systems and automatic emergency avoidance functions as well.

Equipment seems generous, with available stuff such as 20in wheels on the R-Design and 19in wheels for the Inscription, as well as parking assist, a 360-degree surround-view camera, wireless mobile phone charging, and a Harman Kardon sound system pumping out 1,200 watts through 13 speakers. And seeing as you’ll ask for the automatic and not the six-speed manual option, your XC40 will also come with a crystal gear lever from Swedish crystal glassware maker Orrefors, which we assume is a big deal.